In Texas, More Victims of Gun Violence

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/opinion/letters/west-texas-guns-shooting.html

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To the Editor:

Re “A Lost Job, a Chaotic Chase and a Shooting Spree That Killed 7 in West Texas” (news article, Sept. 2):

In 2012, when I was 12, Sandy Hook had the entire nation plastered to their televisions for hours. Now, we receive almost daily notifications of mass shootings. We take a moment to grieve, then move along with our day, accepting that this is what the world has come to. Parkland. Vegas. Odessa. Tomorrow will surely bring another.

I was raised in a generation that prepared more for mass shootings in schools than fires. Our hearts can break and our leaders may pray, but it is clear that these prayers are not being heard. Inaction is never the solution for any issue, especially one that is taking the lives of Americans daily.

I am 18 now and simply frustrated by our nation’s broken leadership.

Noah BateaseGloversville, N.Y.

To the Editor:

As a gun owner, a life member of the N.R.A. and author of scores of articles on shooting and a few books on hunting, I’m responsible in part for the weekend’s heinous mass murders and maiming in Texas. It’s up to us gun owners to ensure that the sports we enjoy bring no harm to others.

What to do? Everybody has an idea. Some are feasible — enhanced school security, universal background checks, improved mental health screening and appropriate sharing of records. Some are much less so — repealing the Second Amendment, eliminating all assault-style weapons, banning high-capacity magazines. Resolving gun violence will not happen without determined and bipartisan action and money.

The latter is where I can best exercise my responsibility to protect the lives of my grandchildren and my neighbors. I am willing to pay for the development, implementation and ongoing assessment of policies and programs to reduce gun violence in America, through a user fee on gun and ammunition sales like the Pittman-Robertson excise tax that restored much American wildlife.

Owning and using guns is my right. Paying associated societal costs is my responsibility.

John RossAsheville, N.C.

To the Editor:

Those who resist gun control argue that if prospective shooters know they may face resistance, they will be less likely to attack. Further, if there is an attack, the shooter can be taken down with someone with a gun. So goes the argument.

Two mass shootings in the past month took place in Texas, a state with among the least restrictive gun laws in the country — and legislation that took effect the day after the Odessa killings loosened the gun laws further.

The notion that someone might be armed did not stop either shooter. Polls show even National Rifle Association members support universal background checks.

Alice CandeNorth Adams, Mass.

To the Editor:

Many have said that we must not just talk but also act to end the daily loss of lives due to gun violence. Appeals for action are great, but our politicians are not acting. Are they not acting because we are shielded from seeing the effects of gun violence on our children?

What would we and our politicians do if we actually saw the damage done to bodies of wounded and dead children by assault weapons? Would The New York Times and other media publish pictures of the effects of gun violence on our children if parents of wounded and dead children consented?

Let’s have the courage to show and see what we are permitting to happen to our children by our unrelenting protection of not them, but the Second Amendment.

Steven BellKew Gardens, Queens

To the Editor:

I agree with President Trump when he says that strengthening background checks would probably not have prevented the recent mass shootings. That is all the more reason to pass legislation that bans all assault weapons.

Michael GilmanToronto